The savings is probably not noticeable, you pay less and get less mpg, my brother use to fill up his 4Runner with Sam's Club gas and I could never figure out why his gas mileage was so terrible, I advised him to start using a name brand top teir gas, and his range went from 250, to 370mpg.

 

Apples and oranges. Don't confuse octane with detergent additives....they are two completely different functions. Octane is a measure of how the air-fuel mixture will burn under heat and compression, and resist detonation, or "knock". Most gas engines, today, require from 87 to 93 Octane, depending on the rating system All gas, no matter what the price, marked from 87 to 93 octane (if it is correctly marked and stored) will resist detonation, according to the octane rating systen, RON or AKI

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating

That rating will generally NOT vary among gas brands, or from from station to station. In other words, the 87 octane part of the gas will be pretty much the same, whether at the El Cheapo, cut-rate station or with a national-name brand. So, that part of it is not an issue.


Detergent additives, though, perform a totally different function......that of preventing carbon, gum, and other deposits from building up on engine, injector and fuel-system surfaces. The amount and quality of detergent and other additives WILL vary from one station to another.....and from one grade of gas to another. In general, Chevron and Shell are considered the best, but you generally do well with any of the major name brands, like Texaco, BP, Phillips, Citgo, etc... However, a political issue with Citgo, NOT related to cars (or this thread), is that it is a Venezuelan state-owned company, and, when you buy it, the money eventually makes it day down to Chavez. So, it's up to you (and your decision) to use Citgo or not.


So then, while you can use cut-rate brands and not necessarily have the engine slowly self-destructing from spark knock, use of these cut-rate brands, over a period of time, increases the chances of gumming the engine up with carbon and dirt. Of course, it doesn't guarantee it, but, as I said, simply increases the chances of that happening.

 

I go for Shell when I can. My mechanic said to stay away from store gas stations like Safeway, Costco, and Fred Meyers.

When my dad put Costco gas in his ES300 it ran like crap. It pinged and did not sound good at all. But with a tank of shell it ran flawlessly.

If you are going to spend 30K+ plus on a car, don't be cheap, buy good gas for your car.

 

Most Lexus products require (or recommend) 93 Octane gas, but the old ES300 may (?) have been one of the exceptions, and use 87 Octane. If the octane number of the Costco gas was the same as that on more expensive brands, then he shouldn't have had a pinging problem if he used the right octane. Cut-rate fuel usually has more problems with detergent than octane (see my post above)...perhaps the Cosco fuel's octane was not marked correctly or accidentally pumped from thetanker into the wrong storage tank underground.....yes, that sometimes happens.


Definitely.

 

Something else, guys (and I should have mentioned this in an earlier post). No matter where you buy your gas, if you see a tanker truck unloading/pumping in the station when you get there, either go somewhere else, or wait at least 5 minutes after the tanker quits pumping. The reason......the large, high-pressure fuel hoses that the truck uses to pump its load can stir up, dirt, sediment, and water bubbles at the bottom of the storage tanks, and, although the station's gas pumps are supposed to have built-in filters to prevent this, some of that junk, if it is stirred up, can get past them into YOUR fuel tank. If you wait 5-10 minutes, and then pump the gas, the dirt and water bubbles will have probably settled back down to the bottom of the storage tank, and you probably won't have a problem. Gas stations with older underground tanks, of course, have more of a problem with this then with newer tanks.

 

Yes the Es300 uses 87. One of the few Lexus that do. Maybe the ES250 does too. But the 330 and 350 use premium for sure. Well I knew about the tanker truck issue already. Maybe the truck just left from Costco when we filled up the ES. Who knows. But to be safe I get gas for my Legend at Shell and we stopped buying Costco gas. Even my brother noticed a difference when he started using shell Diesel in his ancient Mercedes.

 

Hey, I understand Brand loyalty. At one time years ago I would only use Mobile! I've been driving since my first car, a brand new 1957 Renault Dauphine which I purchased while stationed in Biloxi MS (USAF). I have been fortunate to have the Air Force ship my cars to my new overseas destination (Iceland, Spain, Philippines, Turkey).

Talking about crappy gas, the air base gas station was operated by Texaco, but the gas was purchased from the Icelandic government who imported their gas from Russia. It was not unusual to have to take the car to the dealer for a de-carbonation of valves after only a couple of years using that gas. The first thing the dealer did was retard the ignition due to the low octane of all the gas in country.

My main concern at the present is getting a gas blend that won't ruin components in my car. Such a thing happened in this area last year when gas prices sky rocketed past $4/gal and unscrupulous gas dealers were caught red-handed adding more than 10% of ethanol trying to maximize their profits. We had a rash of BMW, Ford, even Postal vehicles coming down with wrecked fuel pumps.

As for the gas we get at COSTCO/SAMS, it might be purchased from well known brands, the same ones you all love. Even if they are not, the additives they use might be purchased from the very same brands. I don't worry about it, as long as the cars I own run trouble free and for years they have been.

 

these subjects have been beaten to death over and over on clublexus and other forums, usually with 'opinions' that have little basis in reality.

also, regulations and requirements vary by STATE no to mention country, so opinions in one state may likely be meaningless or irrelevant elsewhere.

closed.